Sahakar Bharati: Ramesh Vaidya replaces Mehta as President

The 6th National Convention of Sahakar Bharati held last weekend in Pushkar replaced Jyotindra Mehta as is President and put Ramesh Vaidya, an avowed RSS swayamsevak at the helm of the organization for the next three years. “Vaidya is the new Sahakar Bharati President’, said Balachnadran Kulkarni who edits Sahakar Sugandh.

Vaidya belongs to Karnataka and is held as an expert of Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies-the building blocks of the cooperative movement. “Vaidya himself is heading PACS in Karnataka”, informed a Sahakar Bharati official highlighting his expertise.

While Uday Vasudev Joshi has been confirmed in his post as the General Secretary, Jyotindra Mehta has been nominated as Patron replacing Satish Marathe who is now a member of National Executive Council, sources said. This reshuffling of top positions- a practice being done since the inception of Sahakar Bharati, will help infuse fresh energy in the organization, claimed Kulkarni.

The Pushkar Conference of RSS affiliate cooperative body Sahakar Bharati also saw reconstitution of its National Executive Council-the general body which decides on the future course of action for the cooperative organization.

NEC consists of about 300 members drawn from 400 districts across the country where Sahakar Bharati is active. This time, as in the past, it was overhauled again and more than 100 new members joined NEC. “Roughly you can say 25 percent new faces have joined the NEC”, claimed Kulkarni. The revamped NEC is likely to hold its first meeting in Belgaum in Karnataka in February.

The reorganization exercise of Sahakar Bharati also said goodbye to Mukesh Modi of Adarsh credit Co-op fame who single-handedly tarnished the otherwise clean image of Sahakar Bharati. Modi who headed Rajasthan Chapter of Sahakar Bharati was replaced by suave and amiable Hanuman Prasad Agrawal.